A Post on Beauty

This is the last piece I wrote for English Class. I was instructed to write about something prominent in Northern Michigan, something that made me love living here.

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   Northern Michigan is all I know: cold winters, warm summers, wet springs, and brisk autumns. Winter is the most prominent season in northern Michigan. Months filled with snow, cold, and wind, people complain about it and yet they don't think about all the joys there are: skiing/snowboarding, huddling up by a fire with coffee, and shocking beauty.

  Skiing or snowboarding is a must if you live in Northern Michigan. Bundling up: in snow pants,gloves, thick winter coats, helmets and ski masks. Braving out into the cold and racing down slopes, riding the ski lifts, while chatting with friends. Your adrenaline is up as you speed down the hill,  thinking on your toes as you maneuver over the grated snow and shape of the hill. 

  The lodge is a safe haven filled with laughter and friends. Warmth comes easily from the roaring fire and hot cocoa, making the cold outside feel like it never existed. Sooner then expected the urge to attack the slopes again enters your mind as heat envelopes you from head to toe.

 

  Snuggling into a fleece blanket, holding a cup of coffee, and staring into a beautiful fire can't be compared to anything else. The coffee warms your body, the blanket encases you like a welcomed hug, the fire radiates heat, and a golden light dances across the hard wood floors. Chatting with family members, and being warmed by the fire, laughter echoes through the house, remembering memories, and creating new ones.

  A winter in Michigan possesses incredible beauty. A beauty that takes your breath away, and makes you do a double take. It's not something that's constant like the Grand Canyon: Michigan winter's beauty comes and goes. Some days are dark and gray, and other days the sun shines as the snow falls down covering the ground with sparkling diamonds. Green and white splashes the forest as snow covers the pine trees and weighs down the branches making them bow down like a servant. Not

everyone that lives in Michigan finds it beautiful, they tend to focus on the cold, icy roads snow covered cars, and having to add more layers to stay warm. Michigan has a hidden beauty, you just have to look for it, being receptive and eager to winter, rather than complaining about icy roads and extra layers.

   Growing up in Northern Michigan I have learned not only how to dress warm and have fun in the cold, but most importantly to look for beauty in everything. It's not just in the landscapes of snow, but in the people that live up north. Everyone holds something beautiful about them whether it's their eyes, attitude, or personality. Northern Michigan is filled with people that care for one another, we share in our adventures, and in learning to brave a Michigan winter.

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Have a blessed week.

~Rach